I think some of us will appreciate this short article from the USA Today. It tells about a pooch that beyond a lot of physical obstacles reached the highest peak in the northest.
Month: August 2010
Medevac: Encourage Improvements Don’t Require Them
The USA Today reported on Thursday, August 19th that the medevac industry is resisting safety improvements to the helicopter fleet. At first blush to a hiker or climber, the changes the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is seeking be mandated seem more than reasonable. However, these could have server financial consequences that might limit rescue service, raise the rescued person’s expenses for being retrieved and increase insurance costs.
Despite that a high number of deaths and accidents have occurred in the recent months involving medevac, the people entering the wilderness have assumed the risk (in my book) by going into the backcountry. Hikers and climbers are very knowledgeable today about the risks and that even a rescue is dangerous.
The NTSB wants to require that medevac helicopters all be equipped with night vision goggles and certain safety alarms regarding terrain. These are costly and the medevac industry said they encourage them but do not require them because of the cost. These are expensive purchases and would effect every medevac business’ bottom line.
How would they pay for it? By limiting other services by hiring less expensive pilots and medical technicians. Or the price would be seen on your bill. It is also like to raise the premiums of adventure travel insurance. The NTSB is talking about a perfect world. Unfortunately we live in an expensive one. One that we as hikers and climbers should know the risks.
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Geo-Cached Beer and the Prize: Trapp Lager
The drink becomes locked in your mental-GPS cache. You might remember the taste of a pint from the Sleeping Lady Brewery in Anchorage, sipping away just when Denali became visible for a moment and just as quickly vanished. Or you might remember the Saranac Pale Ale in Lake Placid after running out of safe drinking water and hiking ten miles back to your car after three days in the Adirondack High Peaks.
While we in Peaklessburg can find many of the microbrews we look fondly upon nearby in the big box-like pubs, nothing compares to the journey of finding it at its source or in its native region. Even better if you find it in a great destination and love it for on its own merits of texture, flavor, color and aroma. During my recent outdoors road trip covering the northeast Maritimes and states, I tried a number of new beers in a couple of wonderful settings, including coastal Maine, Prince Edward Island and the Green Mountains of Vermont. Gahan, PEI’s only brewery, did a fine job and produced some drafts that Charlottetown and the Island could be proud of. But this trip’s prize came from a very new brewery that hasn’t even started bottling – not yet anyway.
Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont recently started brewing beer. This is the same resort owned by the von Trapps of the Sound of Music-fame. Their brewery produces four drinks: Helles or “bright” beer, an amber beer called Vienna, a dark beer with a malty complexion called Dunkel, and their darkest beer, Bock, which is aged in bourbon casks. They are all special, but Trapp Lager Vienna was my personal favorite. Named for the City of Music, it sounds a horn of malty flavors and surprised me with a substantive yet enjoyable encore of aftertaste. If it was perfect as a beer to finish a ten-hour drive, I can imagine it must be just the thing for a long hike or climb!
Trapp Lager is now recorded in my mental-geo-cache for the eastern side of Mount Mansfield on Luce and Trapp Hills in Vermont. It’s worthy of the mountains. While it is far better to go to its source to try, I look forward to bringing a few bottles home to enjoy when city gets to be too much and I need to pull the hills a little closer for comfort. Go try it for yourself and let me know what you think.
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Mountain Safety Improved: Galgary Herald
The Calgary Herald reported today that data from the Alpine Club of Canada and the American Alpine Club show that mountain adventures have gotten safer in the 1980s and has remained at that level since. A representative of the Calgary Scrambling and Mountaineering Club attributes this to improved gear and better training available to people going into the backcountry.
The article also points out that the outdoor enthusiasts deserve a lot of the credit; we do our homework before going out there. We have access to a great deal of information through the Internet, local climbing groups, hiking clubs and discussion groups.
Safety always comes down to using our heads and not losing them (pun intended.) So carry the Ten Essentials when you head out into the mountains. Or, if you’re like me, take your Blackberry before leaving for the subway.
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Mount Katahdin
It has been a long, good journey, which is why I have not posted a new article in over a week. I just completed a 2,000-plus-mile road trip in our new Subaru Outback, covering some of the Maritime Provinces and all of the New England states. On the drive up north from Peaklessburg, I took in Mount Katahdin for the first time.
Before I go on, I must confess that I once underestimated this mountain. Katahdin is Maine’s highest peak in Baxter State Park (an hour-and-a-half drive from Bangor, Maine) with an elevation of 5,267 feet / 1,605 meters and is the final destination of thru hikers of the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail (AT). Unfortunately, based on the photos I’d seen years ago, stories from Adirondack hikers I met, and the fact that Katahdin rises as mainly the sole mountain massif from what I once considered a dull, featureless forest made the peak completely uninteresting to me. I was wrong to make such judgments.
In terms of the AT, Katahdin’s mountain features overtake all other peaks on the Appalachian Trail south of Presidential Range. For instance, Clingmans Dome, a tree covered peak in the Smoky Mountains, is gently rounded; in fact, an auto route was constructed to its summit, like that on massive Mount Washington. Katahdin by contrast, is like a miniature version of Mount Logan in the Yukon Territory. Okay, that might be a big stretch. Katahdin is not covered in glaciers and snow year-round. However, both stand alone on plains and rise and stretch at length rather than a beautiful conical peak. On Katahdin, the peak ascends through a combination of moderately sloped arms alongside deep cirques created by former glaciers. In addition, the forests of northern Maine are beautiful too, and I would think crossing such country without a maintained trail would be a challenge in its own right.
While the AT route takes thru hikers up the Hunt Trail straight to the summit, the most spectacular path on the mountain is the Knife Edge Trail, which links Katahdin’s South Peak (5241 feet / 1,597 meters) and Pamola Peak (4,902 feet / 1,494 meters). A local told me that the trail was so narrow on either side at times that it had to be straddled with one leg on each side. Truth be told, it is not that narrow. However, when the south flank of the mountain is on one side and the South Basin (with a drop of approximately 2,000 feet over half-a-mile) on the northern side is separated by a mere several feet (two or three at parts), the route is extremely dangerous and should be attempted only in relatively calm winds and dry weather. There are alternatives to getting around this trail by heading north from South Summit instead and taking the Saddle Trail.
Now back in Peaklessburg I can say that Katahdin is well worth the visit – not for settling for lower standards or because it is the terminus of the AT or because I have been in the city too long. Katahdin stands as one of the northeast’s formidable mountains in its own right. If you have climbed its summit I would love to hear your story, so please leave a comment or email me.
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The Suburban Mountaineer 